NEW DELHI: Three fold hike in IITs fee okayed:: The Standing Committee of IIT Council has approved a proposal for a threefold hike in annual fees of IITs form the present Rs.90,000 on Thursday. Another key recommendation made by the panel was that the proposed new entrance examination designed to test the aptitude conducted by a National Authority of Test should be held from 2017 academic year. However, a final decision on the two issues will require the approval of Union HRD Ministry. Sources said that IIT directors and senior officials in a meeting adopted the report presented earlier by a sub-committee headed by IIT Bombay Director Devang Khakhar which had suggested hiking fees to rs.3 lakh and also recommended multiple sources of financing for IITs.

UGC asks universities to organize Yoga festivals::University Grants Commission has sent letters to Vice-Chancellors of universities asking them to organize two to three day Yoga festival in April and May for students. UGC secretary Jaspal S.Sandhu said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized the need for making Yoga more appealing to youth so that they can imbibe this rich cultural heritage and their energy could be channelized in national building.

Bomb hoax ground flights:: Two flights bound for Nepal and Bhubaneswar were on Thursday grounded for a few hours and 340 people on board were evacuated following a bomb threat call received at Indira Gandhi International Airport here but it turned out to be hoax. An all clear was given to both the flights after about four hours of conducting anti-sabotage checks. The bomb call turned out to be hoax according to senior airport security official.

Auditor detained in Syndicate Bank fraud case:: Almost of all the employees of three Rajasthan branches of the Syndicate Bank are believed to have been part of the conspiracy hatched allegedly by a chartered accountant and his associates to defraud the bank of Rs.1,000. The overall transaction involved in the entire scam is about Rs.18,000 crore according to CBI. The agency had last week registered a case against five mid rung managers of the Syndicate Bank, an Udiapur based chartered accountant Bhart Bamb and his associates. The accused had allegedly been cheating the bank in various ways since 2011. The accused got 386 bank accounts opened for the purpose said the agency.

PATNA: Case of sedition against Asaduddin:: A case if sedition was slapped against MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi in Bihar’s Gopalganj Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court on Thursday for hurting the sentiments of people by refusing to say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. The case was filed by Qurban Ansari after his 90 year mother Rashidan Khatoon lost consciousness when she heard Owaisi’s statement on TV. In his complaint he has said that Owaisi’s statement was inflammatory enough to hurt the feelings and sentiments of my mother who loves her country very much. The Chief Judicial Magistrate court has accepted the case has reserved the date for hearing.

RAJKOT: Declare cow as Rashtra Mata:: Eight animal rights activists on Thursday allegedly attempted suicide by consuming poison in the district Collectorate premises demanding that cow be declared as ‘Rashtra mata’ and pan-India ban. Condition of those who attempted suicide are said to be stable.. They demanded that there should be complete beef ban across the country.